Greetings Safety Colleagues,
Welcome to the Fall of 2021 and the continuation of the pandemic. The Delta variant is still wreaking
havoc across the country. This has created staffing issues, shifts in business operations, and logistical challenges for all. Please remember to take care of yourself and your family as we continue the bold effort to press forward.
Many of you are leaned on more these days than ever before in your roles. Safety has risen to the top of most all Corporate Organizations and Governmental entities. Our voices are called for more frequently and just like earlier today, even here in my role, we were asked to weigh in on a CV-19 billing issue with testing. What will it be next?
Locally, we still do not have a certified budget from the General Assembly. We are operating on a continuation budget. While many North Carolinians never think too much about it, this process continues to slowly creep forward on Jones Street. The State Government does not face a shut down, however the items in one of the longest budget proposals in our state’s history most likely will not be dealt with until October. Safety does have some skin in the proposal, but we won’t know until it is formally certified.
Nationally, the House passed a package of seven appropriations bills in Washington, that would give significant budget increases to worker safety agencies. H.R. 4502 allocates $691.8 million to OSHA which begins Oct 1. Included in this portion is $45 million in OSHA’s enforcement budget and $11 million in compliance assistance. Parts of the new appropriations also fund MSHA and NIOSH. This could mean much more enforcement in the coming year as the shift from employer Covid safety moves toward employee Covid safety responsibilities. This will be an entertaining transition for us to witness.
Many of you may have heard about the ASSP National Safety 2021 Conference that was held in Austin, Texas this month. From the North Carolina Chapter, Jon Wallace attended in person, and Frieda Sanders attended virtually. It was a great conference, and we were fortunate to review some excellent content. Others from our Chapter may have also attended. Let us know if you were able to participate.
We will be sharing more next month about the proposal for the house of delegates that is up for vote in early 2022. To review our ASSP governance page, click here.
Please join us for our next presentation pertaining to Robotics on October 14th, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM). Caleb Sylvester will be with us from Boston Dynamics for a safety use case of the SPOT robot.
Thank you for being a safety professional and helping to make sure our employees return home safely to their families each day.
Robin